Catch Me if You Can
by Toolazy2write
Summary: A collection of stories about everyone's favorite Speedster and Archer.
1. Tastes

**Disclaimer:** I'm far too poor to any of these characters

**Tastes**

Wally and Artemis argued about a lot of different things. Most of the things they fought over ranged in varying degrees of how inconsequential the actual topic of said argument happened to be. They fought over just about everything under the sun, but one of the topics they fought over most vehemently and most often was music. Specifically whose taste in music was better?

Now the team admittedly was a rather interesting melting pot of musical preferences. Robin was an avid connoisseur pop-punk, techno, and J-pop. Kaldur preferred to relax listening to classical and various instrumentals. Megan enjoyed the music of the early 50's and 60's, the Sinatra's and Dean Martin's among others. Superboy oddly enough seemed to gravitate towards the country and folk music, enjoying a combination of Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.

Of course Wally and Artemis represented vast polar opposites of the musical spectrum. Wally was addicted to pop music. Anything bubbly, energetic, and infectious could be found on Wally's MP3 player. On several occasions the team had found Wally singing and dancing to Michael Jackson, and even a few times to Rick Astley. Artemis on the other hand was a metal head. Her iPod was like an encyclopedia of metal through the ages, Ozzy, Dio, Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, the list went on through the better part of the last few decades. When passing Artemis's quarters in Mount Justice one could often feel the thick heavy thumps of bass and the intricate wails of guitars erupting even through the thick metal door.

That being said neither young hero could stand being in the presence of the other while they were enjoying their music without offering up such a stimulating query as, "How can you listen to that shit?", and then the sparks would fly. It had escalated to such a point where Aqualad had to forbid them from arguing on the subject (having given up on trying to cease all of their arguing, and instead trying to just put a stop to the more inane ones).

Thus we come to present day, Artemis wandered the halls of the base, having just finished an intense training session and was looking for something to eat. She had her iPod in hand and ear buds blaring far louder than they should have been. She entered the empty kitchen area, Megan had dragged Superboy off to see some kids movie with her, Robin was off doing whatever it was he did when in his free time, and Kaldur was off with Aquaman somewhere under the sea. That left only Wally and she hadn't seen hide or flaming hair of said annoying speedster, so she was in an especially cheerful mood as she placed her iPod on the communal speaker dock they had bought for the kitchen and let her music fill the room. Listening to the last half of "The Tides" by Darkest Hour she set about fixing a small snack.

* * *

It had been an uneventful day for the young Wally West. He'd come to Mount Justice in hopes of encountering a certain martian redhead only to discover she was absent. As fate would have it Wally found the only other two teammates in the mountain were Robin and Artemis. After some high speed searching, Wally found Dick in the sever room. He sat in the center of the room, surrounded by blue glowing cables hunched over his laptop clacking away on the keyboard. Laughing his creepy little chuckle. Wally slowly backed out of the darkened room, feeling a little dirty and not sure what he'd just walked in on exactly. Deciding to wander back towards the main part of the mountain Wally thought about what he wanted to do with his day. Though unclear as to what he wanted to do, Wally was sure he wanted to avoid the team archer. Sure they had their issues, she had replaced Roy after all, but since thw whole Bialya mission, things had been different. They still fought, oh how they fought, but it wasn't as often. Before Wally could ponder more closely on the subject, his stomach made it's presence known. Wally decided it was time for a quick snack. Slipping into superspeed he covered the rather vast distance between where he was and the small kitchen in a matter of seconds, he broke out of his super speed back into a normal walk as he neared the kitchen, the sound of loud angry music echoed through the empty stone halls. Wally let out a sigh, it would seem fate would have him spend his day bantering with Artemis, but what Wall saw as he came to the edge of the hallway left him dead in his tracks and more importantly the sight had accomplished what few others had, it left Wally speechless.

* * *

Artemis had quickly fixed herself a simple sandwich and poured herself a glass orange juice as the song changed. The keyboard gave way to smooth riff of the guitar and she immediately recognized the song, "Sinful Love" by Blue Oyster Cult. She loved the song and couldn't help but sloly start to dance around the counter. She closed her eyes and let the music wash over her, moving her body to the music, feeling the thump and roll of the bass, and the tune of the guitar running through her. As the song picked up she started to move her hips more, grinding with an invisible partner as she say with the chorus, "I love you like sin, but I won't be your pigeon."

Soon the song came to a close and she felt like she was being watched and quickly turned towards the hallway, but it was empty. She must have been wrong, she hated how creepy the mountain could get when it was empty. She didn't know how Batman and Robin could stand it, being in their famous "Batcave" all the time.

* * *

Once Wally knew he was safely out of Artemis's famous line of sight he silently decided he may have to expand his taste in music.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Hope you liked it, the first story I had planned for this little collection really wasn't clicking with me as I worked on it and while taking a little music break this just kinda came to me while trying to decide what to listen to. Please review, I hope to have another chapter up by the end of the week.

Peace.


	2. Knock

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of these characters, if I did we'd be busy having adventures.

**Knock**

_Flash Fact #10: speedsters have two modes of perception, normal and speed mode. While in speed mode a speedster is able to both see and think at superspeed._

What uncle Barry hadn't told Wally at first was that this particular "Flash Fact" came with an important addendum. Sometimes speedsters have a tendency to just slip into speed mode, like when they're in danger, or bored, or in shock. Yeah, in shock was a good word for what Wally was right now. To better understand Wally's predicament we need to go back a little ways.

The team had been on a mission, recovering some nuclear launch codes from a small group of metahuman terrorists, the mission was a success, but not without a few...let's call them slip ups. The biggest of which involved a breakdown in communication where Wally inadvertently ran into Artemis's line of fire, this resulted in the speedster getting blasted into a brick wall by Artemis's low-impact explosive arrow and being knocked clean out for the duration of the skirmish.

Now despite certain super powers, Wally considers himself only human. So when he regained consciousness aboard the bioship, Wally felt it was appropriate that he lodge a complaint with the person who plastered his face against the wall. Needless to say Artemis had a different opinion on who was at fault in the situation, so voices were raised, fingers were pointed, and names were called. This continued until the team arrived at Mount Justice where Batman was waiting to debrief them.

This did not go well for Wally or Artemis, Batman tore into them after the rest of the team had been dismissed about "Functioning as a unit" and "Communicating with the team" and so on. By the time he was done chewing them out Wally felt smaller than The Atom. After all was said and done Artemis turned to him, gave him an angry stare and a huff before heading off too her room. Wally sighed and zipped to his room and changed back into his civilian clothes all while still moving at super speed before heading to the common room. He found Robin sitting on the couch fiddling with his laptop, he sat down next to the boy wonder, wincing as his still sore back made contact with the couch.

"Having girl troubles Wally?" Robin asked not looking up from his screen, smirk plastered all over his face.

"Dude?" Wally immediately regrets his penchant for overreacting to his friends goading as he felt his ribs ache.

"Hey take it easy." Robin urged his friend glancing up from his screen, "Don't take this the wrong way, but this is kinda your fault man."

"What!" Wally expected Batman to say something like this was his fault, he did that with everybody, but Robin was like his best friend, he was supposed to be on his side, "How was it my fault?"

"Dude, you think and move at the speed of sound. A little heads up would go a long way."

"Whatever." Wally hated how Robin always made sense, "This kinda thing wouldn't have happened if Roy were here."

"Dude, I hate to say it but Red Arrow left us high and dry, and Artemis is here. You gotta get over it." Wally could recognize Dick's stern look despite his shades, "I thought you said the two of you bonded during the whole Bialya fiasco."

"That was different I...we...she was...it was just different okay." Wally huffed failing to out debate his thirteen year old compatriot who was wearing his trademark smirk.

"Dude just go kiss and make up already." A small chuckle punctuated Robin's words as he took in his friends expression.

"Fine, I'll go and apologize." The speedster said standing from the couch and exiting the room in a huff.

Wally stood outside Artemis's room for a few moment thinking of exactly what he was going to say. He reached up to knock but stopped himself, last time he knocked Artemis opened the door, stared at him, and before he could say a word she slammed the door in his face. He decided on a tactless entrance and just get the apology out of the way. Taking a deep breath he swifty opened the door and barged into the room, "Artemis I just wanted to apologize for what happened on the mission.", was what Wally had planned to say, but all he managed to get out was "Artemis I just wanted to apolo..." when confronted with the sight before him. There stood Artemis, naked, holding a towel open, hair down, water slowly sliding down her toned body, eyes wide like a deer in the headlights.

And this is where we left Wally, stunned and his metahuman reflexes betraying him. Artenis stood there in his plane of vision, like a greek statue in tribute to the goddess she named for. Wally stood there for what was to him a relative eternity, forced to take in Artemis's every intimate contour. Finally he watched the color rise slowly to her cheeks as her expression turned from startled and bewildered to angered and indignant. He slowly regained control of his limbs as he watched her move in slow motion to grab the nearest thing, her alarm clock, and hurl it at him. He was already out of the room and down the hall by the time she hurled the offending clock leaving the hollow voiced echo, "I'MSOSORRYI'MSOSORRY!"

As Wally raced through the empty mountain trying to as much space between himself and the now infuriated Archer he continued to repeat the same mental note to himself like a mantra, "Knock first next time."

**Author's Note: **Yeah, when I first saw Geoff John's description of The Flash's speedmode I thought it made a lot of since, and the fact that such an awesome had such realistic limitaion or drawback made it one of those fun super hero factoids you hold onto (Like most Flash fact lol). So when my first idea for the first chapter kinda fell through in the writing process this idea sorta came to, I mean what kinda problem would make puberty even harder for our young Wallace West?

Well I hope you like it. Please review, next update may be a while out since I exhausted my first two most fleshed out ideas. I'll take a request if anyone has them.

Cheers Mates.


	3. Tricks

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of these characters. If I did I'd be playing darts with a certain rouge right now ;)

**Tricks**

Wally hated when the team went up against his villains. Wally secretly loved his villains, or more accurately Wally loved the challenge they presented. The fact was though, no one from outside Keystone and Central city really took The Rouges seriously. Never mind the havoc guys like Captain Cold, Mirror Master, or Weather Wizard could cook up when they were on their A-game. Unfortunately for Wally's ever fragile ego they weren't up against those Rouges today, hell, he would have taken an encounter with Captain Boomerang right now over who the bad guys hired as their "Muscle". Now Wally and everyone on the team were face to face with James Jesse, A.K.A The Trickster. Now like any of the Rouges the Trickster was a threat, but a complicate one. Some days he wanted to bury the city in tapioca pudding and some days he just wanted to prank call the police station pretending to be the mayor.

So here was Wally, having to face down one of the most embarrassing Rouges since The Turtle, and of course as fate would have it Kaldur sent all of the team ahead after the main objective except for him and the person he least wanted to experience the Trickster with.

Artemis.

So Wally stood there in broad daylight in the middle of a throughly deserted street staring up at Trickster in all his "glory", tacky costume and all (Honestly, yellow and navy blue pin stipes with pokka dots, an orange and black striped cape, and purple highlights in his David Bowie hair cut, it was clear Trickster was insane). He stood there in the air, courtesy of his trademark Air Walk shoes holding what appeared to be a rubber chicken. Wally figured knowing Trickster it would either explode, spit acid, or was just a rubber chicken. With the Trickster all were more than likely. Wally cast a quick sideways glance towards Artemis. She was smirking. He wasn't sure what she was enjoying more, the utter ridiculousness that was The Trickster, or Wally's utter embarrassment with even being remotely associated with him, or maybe it was a combination of both. At this point Wally Really didn't even care about that.

The Trickster shielded his eyes from the sun and peered down at them before his eyes lit up and he energetically started waving the arm holding the rubber chicken, "Hey, KidFlash! Long time no see! It's me! The Trickster!" He shouted down to them exuberantly.

Wally heard Artemis trying (and failing) to stifle her laughter before letting out a defeated sigh, "Yeah James, it's me." Wally shouted up to the obviously excited man.

"How's it going? Hey you wanna go play darts?" He shouted excitedly.

"James what are you doing here?" Wally shouted up at him, quickly losing his patients.

"Oh, you mean all this? Some guys on Craig's List wanted help pinching some fancy space do-hickey from S.T.A.R. Labs. I thought it might be fun." Trickster declared sounding almost proud of himself.

"Are you serious?" mumbled Wally under his breath massaging his temples as Artemis was now double over almost hurting herself trying not to laugh out loud. "James get down here."

"Why?"

"Just come down here now!" Wally could not believe he, the famous KidFlash, was having this kind of discussion with a grown man.

"Fine." Trickster said with a pout throwing the chicken over his shoulder before slowly descending a non-existant staircase in the air, slouched and slinging his arms back and forth like a kid who was told he couldn't have candy for dinner. Before he reach the ground they heard a small explosion off in the distance followed by a small chorus of car alarms wailing.

"Great," Wally thought, "He's in an exploding chicken mood today."

"I just wanted to have some fun." Trickster weakly defended, he looked like a kicked when he wasn't being irrantionally upbeat.

"James, Flash talked about this kinda thing with you." Wally tried to reason with him.

"I know, but it's no fun in the hospital, and I don't like all the pills." Trickster said not making eye contact, "Hey, who's you're cute friend?" Trickster asked quickly drawing attention to a surprised Artemis.

"What did you just..."

"Who her? She...um...just..."

"Oh I see how it is." Trickster smirked, "She's your new girlfriend. Way to go kid." He said giving Wally a thumbs up.

"What?" Was all Wally could get out before Artemis stepped forward, finger pointed angrily at Trickster.

"Listen here you crazy..."

"Hey, who am I to get in the way of young love?" Tricskter asked pulling a can of peanut brittle from behind his back, Wally quickly moved in front of Artemis as Trickster popped the top and out popped several colorful vinyl covered springs, only these springs did more than just jump out of the can whimsically. They proceeded to wrap around Wally and Artemis, binding the from their shoulders to thier knees before they fell to the ground in a tangle of bodies. "Well I'm gonna go catch up with the fun, you two love birds have fun now." Trickster called as he ran off through the air.

Wally and Artemis lay there on the ground for a few moments, the far off sound of car alarms still echoing off in the distance. "What the Hell? Are you kidding me!" Artemis finally cried as she began vehemently struggling against their very very tight bonds.

After a few moments of this Wally felt the urge to speak up, "Arty, please stop struggling." Wally said, his voice a bit shaky.

"Why should I do that?" She shouted the question at him, her aqua eyes shimmering with anger. That look made telling her why all the harder on him.

"I hate to say it, I mean really hate to say this." Wally gulped, "But you're a teenage girl and I'm a teenage boy, and if you keep moving around like that...well...something's gonna happen."

Artemis's eyes went wide and her face went blank, "You don't mean..." Wally nodded, "This. Isn't. FUNNY!"

**Author's Note: **This a homage to possibly my fave Waltemis (whatever you wanna call the pairing) story, _**Safe Word **_By Cloaks and Daggers. I decided to put my own little twist on things. I wanted to have the Trickster play a big role so I modeled him after the JLU Trickster played by Mark Hamill (who also played the Trickster in the crappy Flash live action show in like the 80's). I tried to throw in some fun call back jokes to that so I hope you found them as funny as I did. I may make this a two parter if you guys like it, otherwise I'm gonna try to think up something new, hopefully something focusing more on Artemis this time.

Thanks for all your reviews and support. Keep it up and I'll try to update as often as I can.

Also ygirl87, I like your idea, but I don't know how the site works yet so things might get tricky.

Till next time true believers.


	4. Tied

**Disclaimer: **I don't own theses characters, and if I did I'd be hiding from Artemis after pulling this stunt lol.

**Tied**

This was insane. This was total pure, unadulterated, padded cell in Arkham insanity. Here she was, laying in the middle of an empty city street, tied up like a human burrito, almost nose to nose with the crowned prince of immaturity himself, Wally West. Why did god hate her, what had she done to deserve such a punishment? And if that wasn't bad enough, Wally had so kindly pointed out her efforts to free them were putting him at odds with his hormones and she didn't have to do the math to know they both really, _**really**_, didn't want it to come to that.

Artemis swore if she got a hold of Trickster when this was all over, she was gonna put a boxing glove arrow where the sun didn't shine.

* * *

If we could read Wally's mind we'd hear what sounded like a chipmunk on a combination of helium and methamphetamine. His thoughts were litterally traveling at unltra sonic speeds. Slowly he was able to take a deep breath and calm himself. He needed to keep his head clear and his mind anywhere but where it was headed with Artemis strapped to his chest.

Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, no problem, teams off saving the day, megans out of telepathic range, and neither of us can reach our comms. Not good, not good, okay, think Wally, think. The odds are stacked against, or more like Artemis was stacked against him. Oh yeah she was stacked al...no! No! NO! Bad Wally! No! Can't think like that. Think straight man, this is Artemis we're talking about here. There's like a million other girls besides her you could think about, but wow, her eyes sure are blue, and those lips sure look...NONONO! Stop doing that! Ugh! What would Uncle Barry do?

* * *

Okay, now this is just ridiculous, why couldn't she have been tied nose to nose with someone like Kaldur or Superboy. Oh yeah, she wouldn't mind being pressed up against that nice big chest of his. Instead she got stuck with the team beanpole. It wasn't like he wasn't like he didn't have his own thing going on, he had some nice abs, good legs, and that cute butt. Whoa, whoa, where the Hell did that come from. The insanity must be contagious because there was no way she was thinking that about Wally. No way. Was it getting hotter all of a sudden.

* * *

Alright Wally that's it, just don't think about, think...think about the periodic table, yeah, list the elements, that's a safe idea. Okay, hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium...what's that smell? Like cinnamon and apples. Must be Artemis's hair. Smells so good, could get lost in...NONONO...um boron...

* * *

Artemis finally realized the heat was coming from Wally, it was literally radiating off of him and she could feel his body shake and twitch under her, but she didn't realize how bad a number this playing on him till she looked up at his face. Wow, she wasn't sure if she should be mad at him that this was such a problem or feel flattered that she was making it such a problem. Then it hit her, her arm was cramping. She could feel the tension in the muscle, the sharp stabbing pain, it was excruciating, she had to do something, but she knew it would take some serious shifting, "Wally." She said almost in a whisper.

"Y-yeah." She could here the strain in his voice.

"I'm cramping, I **have** to move." She could hear him gulp.

* * *

Okay Wally no big deal, she just has to move a teensy weensy bit, nothing special, just don't think about, go back to the elements, calcium, scandium, titanium. Artemis started shifting her shoulders and moving herself up and down slowly, this caused both her and Wally's chests to rub againist each other. Ni-nickle, co-copper, oh god no. Wally was losing the battle and let out a labored groan.

"Whoa, I never thought I'd catch you do doing this in public." Wally's eyes shot open to find Robin standing over them grinning like the cat that ate the canary. Before he could even think of anything to say Artemis was already on top of things.

"Cut us free. **NOW**!" She ordered their younger teammate.

"Hey, hey, I'm not feeling very conserted here." Dick joked as he pulled out a bird-a-rang and kneeled beside them, "I can cut through this stuff in a minute or two, but I'm not sure if anyone cut through all the sexual tension in the air." He said with a chortle. Wally didn't care, he just had to last a few more minutes.

Phew, saved by the bird.

**Author's Note: **Well you asked for it and I hoped you liked it. I wanted to show both of them stuggling rather than just one or the other and I hope I did a good job of it.

Thanks for all the reviews and favorites. Hope to get another update ready soon, keep reviewing please.

Adios.


	5. Impressed

**Disclaimer:** I don't Own Young Justice or any of the characters, kinda surprised I have to keep telling you this lol

**Impressed**

Artemis would never admit it. Especially not to him. Oh no, definitely not to him. But the truth was Wally impressed her. She could never tell him though. A combination of her embarrassment and what such an emission would do to his ego. Yeah, that's it. That was the only reason she didn't want to admit it.

There were plenty of little things that he did that impressed her. There was the way he devoured Megan's "cooking", he always put it away with a big smile (and a cheesy pick up line) while the rest of them where either too smart, too tactful, or too fearful to accept any of her creation, much less eat more than one of them.

There was the way he moved at superspeed, so fluid and graceful. She remembered when he picked her up in his arms in Bialya. She watched as the world around her morphed instantly to a world of shapeless forms and mixing colors, the only thing in focus was the road just ahead of them and him.

On another occasion Artemis remembered he'd surprised her with his expertise in the ways of the science of chemistry. They had just come back from a mission and Artemis was sitting in the living area still in her mission gear save for her mask frantically trying to solve several equations on a piece of notebook paper. Wally had waltzed in heading towards the kitchen for a snack when she let out an exasperated groan attracting his attention.

"What's got you all in a fuss?" He asked hanging over the back of the couch eyeing the angry Archer as she stared at a sheet of notebook paper.

"This stupid chemistry homework, it's freaking driving me nuts." Artemis stated indignantly.

"Let me take a look at that." And like that Wally snatched her pencil and the paper with his speed and was sitting next to her looking at the problems in her text book before she even registered the paper was out of her hands.

"Hey! I need to..."

"Done." Wally simply stated holding out the paper. She took the paper and carefully eyed the complex and messy scribblings.

"These are...these are right." Artemis marveled as Wally zipped into the kitchen and piled a plate high with Megan's latest batch of cookies and other snacks.

"It was just science." He said simply.

"Well...um...thanks." Artemis offered still a little taken aback by the whole thing.

"No problem." And that was all he said before leaving, no bravado, no gloating, not even an "You owe me one", he did it like it was the simplest thing in the world.

Then there were the big things, the heroic things he did that impressed her. She remembered the utter shock of watching Wally beat Superboy in a training match. Now Wally was argueably the least super of the super powered members of the team, he did only have one superpower, while Kaldur, Megan, and Superboy all had at least three or four. But there she stood, watching Superboy take a swing and catch a whole lot of air and then Wally zoom in and peg him in the side and then the a scene would repeat. It was like watching a wave chip away at a rock over time watched in fast forward. Finally he came in and sent a kick to Superboy's leg that made him stagger and all to one knee and the floor declared his failure.

Then there was the fact he never flinched. Well wait that wasn't true. He actually flinched a lot, and twitched, and jittered, the fact was he could never keep himself completely still she'd noticed. It was in the moments of danger and the heat of battle, in the clinch he was always staring down danger unwavering and ready to face it head on.

What impressed her most was that he never hesitated. He never wasted a millisecond if someone was in danger, even when she was in danger. She still remember that night, when he dove at her and took three bullets in his leg. She remember dragging Wally out of the mess as all his loud pained thought flooded the teams head as Megan frantically tried to manage the telepathic link and the heat of the combat, Artemis cradled Wally behind a tall stack of crates trying to ease his discomfort as best as she could. Once they were out of the heat of things they had rushed Wally all the way to New York to see the one superhero doctor, Dr. Midnite. Artemis sat in the hold with him the whole way while Megan maxed the speed on the bioship to get them there fast enough. After several hours of intense surgery Wally was resting peacefully in hospital bed with Artemis sitting at his bedside, Dr. Midnite had told them later his accelerated healing rate had tried to heal the wound around the bullets and his metabolism had kicked out most of the anesthetic leaving Wally to suffer through all of it. After a couple of torturous hour of sitting there in silence watching Wally and thinking of what he'd say when he woke up, his eyes opened and began to dart about the room. When they found an elated Artemis he smiled his trademark dopey smile. Once she saw it her instincts kicked in, the instincts her dad had drilled into her, and she blurted out, "Why did you save me?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He asked with a chuckle, he voice was raw and tired, "If I didn't save you, who would I have left to argue with?" Artemis had to fight back tears as she placed her hand upon his and squeezed it. Yes, Wally West had a tendency of impressing her, now if only she could admit it to him.

**Author's Note:** I kinda put off typing this one out because I wanted to put a good foot forward doing a mainly Artemis story since the rest have been mostly from Wally's perspective or both of theirs.

I hope you liked it and I thank you all for the reviews and favs from the last chapter. Keep up the good work and I'll try to do the same.

Toodles


	6. Wager

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of these characters, if so I'd be playing wingman for Wally

**Wager**

They say in a bad situation you should make your own fun. That's exactly what Artemis was doing. She wasn't sure how she got into being stuck in the mall with Wally. She suspected it was thanks to some sort of Martian mind trick seeing as Megan was off leading Superboy through the crowded mall. So after about half an hour of dealing with Wally and finally getting sick of bantering back and forth with the stubborn redhead, she decided to try to do something to keep him busy and hopefully provide some entertainment. So she made him a little bet, so now she was sitting in the food court sipping a soda and watching Wally trying valiantly (and failing) to prove her wrong.

The bet had been simple, she didn't want to confuse him after all, he just had to prove himself as the Casanova he always boasted he was. He just needed get a number, a date, a kiss, some kind of badge of honor. The only catch was he had to only ask girls in the 6-10 range on the hotness scale, this way it was a challenge. So far after about an hour Wally was zero for twenty.

Now if this little experiment had taught Artemis anything about Wally it was that Wally didn't have a set type of girl he went for. As far as Artemis could tell if the girl had a pulse she was good enough for Wally. This didn't help him though. She watched as Wally tried to put the moves on a very uninterested goth girl that made Artemis want to cringe at the number of piercing hanging from her face. It didn't take long for her to watch the girl give Wally the finger and tell him something that looked not very nice making the score now zero to twenty one.

After a few more minutes of trying Wally slowly made his way to her table and sat down laying his head on the table looking away from Artemis. Artemis couldn't help chuckle at Wally's kicked puppy routine, "What's wrong Wall-man, tired of beating all the girls off with a stick."

"Ha-ha." Wally replied sarcastically.

"Ready to give in, or do you wanna keep going, we've still got time until Megan and Superboy get back from whatever it is they're doing." She watched him as he turned his head to look up at her, then his expression changed. First to what she guessed was thoughtful, or at least thoughtful for Wally, and he looked smug, a little too smug for someone who was just rejected by half the food court.

"Wanna go on a date beautiful?"

Okay, that surprised her and she almost choked on her soda once he said it. She looked down at him and saw him smirking, leering up at her. Oh, so that's how it is, the bet was still on and that was how he wanted to play it huh, "Hmmm, not sure Wall-man, you really think I'm at least a 6?" She wanted to see how far he was willing to go with this.

"I'd say you fit in the range rather comfortably." He said smugly. She liked this, he wasn't giving anything up, he was making it a challenge. And Artemis did love a challenge.

"Well I don't know, what did you have in mind baywatch?" Artemis asked wonder just what he would come up with, she was enjoying this little game a little too much for it to end so quickly.

"Hmmm, I don't know, what do you think a ninja boyfriend would do for a date with his ninja girlfriend?" He was getting bolder, but Artemis was not about to go on the defensive just yet.

"I have a few ideas, you have the time Flashboy?" There it was, it was out there, ball was in his court now.

"I'm Kid Flash remember, fastest boy in the world, I've got all the time in the world." He says very melodramatically as he stands from his seat and strikes a fairly corny pose.

Oh, she had to give it to him, he played his card close to his vest and that kept her on her toes, okay so she'd let give him this one, "Then I think a movie's a good place to start." She said simply standing up and grabbing his collar and lightly leading him out of the food court. So the score at the end of the day one to twenty one, she figured she'd call it a draw.

**Author's Note:** Hope you liked this one. I'd wanted to do another Artemis centered story, this time one that focused on her playful and competitive side.

Thanks to everyone for all the favs and alerts. Hoping to get another chapter up middle of next week.

Please review.

Peace.


	7. Dinner

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of the characters in this story.

**Dinner**

It was just her luck something like this would happen. She just had to sprain her ankle, and she just had to do it on the day the mountain's teleporters were down. So that meant she had only one option to get her all the way to Gotham from Happy Harbor, and he was standing beside her outside the mountain doing several ridiculous stretches. She sighed deeply leaning against a tree to keep her weight off her tender ankle, "Are you ready yet?" She asked yet again trying ironically to get the young speedster to hurry up.

"Easy Artemis, running someone across three states isn't exactly a walk in the park." Wally said finally standing up and moving to the blond Archer, "Alright let's go." He said holding his arms out in front of her.

"Oh no, you've got to be kidding." There was no way she was gonna let Kid Frisky carry her bridal style.

"Oh c'mon, there aren't a lot of ways to do this." She stared stubbornly at Wally, "You didn't complain back in Bialya." Wally says with a smirk.

Crap, Artemis had to admit he had her with that one, "Fine…just watch the hands, got it?" Artemis conceded. Before she knew what happened she was in his arms and he was giving her that trademark grin.

"Wouldn't think about it. Now hold tight." Artemis reluctantly wrapped her arms around his neck, and then he was off. The scenery blurred and it took Artemis a while to adjust to the speed. After about half an hour they reached Artemis's apartment building. Despite Artemis's protests, which had started as soon as they crossed the state lines into New York, Wally carried her all the way to her apartment door.

"You idiot! What if someone saw us?" She said punching him in the arm after she was standing safely on solid ground.

"Oh excuse me, I thought maybe you might appreciate not having to climb two flights of stairs on a bad ankle." Wally defended trying not to raise his voice in the empty hallway.

"We have an elevator genius." Artemis says gesturing just down the hall. Almost as if on cue there was a audible _Ding _and lurch as the elevator doors began to slowly open. Artemis's heart skipped a beat as the doors slowly opened and she pleaded to whatever deity, please don't let it be her, not here, not with him standing right here, but her pleas went unheard. There in the elevator carrying several grocery bags as well as balancing several more in her lap was Artemis's mother, Artemis's paraplegic mother. Okay, no big deal, Wally's always in a hurry, just get him out of here before she gets here, "Okay, Wall-man, whatever, time for you to go, now." Artemis said trying get Wally moving, but he wasn't hardly paying attention.

"Just a minute, I'm gonna go help this lady with her bags." Damnit Wally, Artemis cursed to herself, of all the time to act like a boy scout he just had to pick now. Artemis didn't have time to think of another plan before her mother saw her.

"Good, there you are Artemis, help with these bags and we can get started for dinner." She said pressing the hold button as she gathered up her bags. And like that it was out in the open. She could see it, Wally's expression may move at super speed, she could still read his expression like an open book. She saw him put two and two together and then looked at her for confirmation, "Artemis who's your friend?" Her mom asked rolling up closer to the apartment door.

"Oh, me? I'm.."

"Just leaving." Artemis interrupted giving him and angry look, "Weren't you?"

"Artemis Crock, I did not raise you to be so rude." Her mother scolded before noticing the wrappings around her ankle, "Artemis what happened to your leg?"

"It's nothing mom, I just sprained it training, Black Canary said it'd be fine in a couple of days." Artemis defended.

"Fine. I just wish you'd be more careful." Artemis's mother said before turning her attention back to Wally, "Does that mean you brought my Artemis all the way from that ridiculous mountain?"

"Well yeah...I.." Wally tried to explain not sure what exactly to tell the mother.

"Good, such a kind young man, why don't you stay for dinner?" Artemis's mother invited opening the door with her key.

"MOM!" Artemis protested, there was no way this was happening. Her mom ignored her objections and started wheeling herself and the groceries into the small apartment.

"Wait," A confused Wally exclaimed finally finding his voice, "So your mom knows about the whole superhero thing?"

"Of course she does." Artemis grumbled leading him into the apartment where her mother was trying to place a box of cereal in a cabinet just out of her reach.

"Let me help you with that." Wally offered. Before Artemis's mother could answer the small kitchen was filled with a red topped blur as Wally unpacked and put away all the groceries in a matter of seconds.

"W-what, you just.." Artemis's mother wondered at the amazing feat, "You must be that Flash character's sidekick Artemis used to watch all over the news..." At this Wally sent Artemis a smirk and Artemis wished her mom didn't talk so much, "You're Flash Boy right?" At this Wally cringed and Artemis let out a chuckle. Dinner was simple, a few oven heated instant dinners, but Wally devoured it like it was the last thing he'd ever eat, telling corny jokes and entertaining Artemis's mother with stories of his wacky adventures with Flash. After a small desert of ice cream Wally felt he had better get going, "Artemis see Wally here to the door while I get started on the dishes."

"I have time to help you with those Mrs. Crock." Wally offered getting up from the table.

"No no, you've done enough, I insist."

"C'mon Wally." Artemis said grabbing Wally's arm and lightly dragging him out of the kitchen. Once they were back in the hallway Artemis glared at Wally, "You tell no one about this, you understand." She punctuated each word with a firm poke to his chest.

"Yeah, yeah, okay, I get it." Wally says finally swatting Artemis's hand from his chest.

"Good, I'll keep you to that Baywatch." Artemis said crossing her arms as Wally scribbled something on a slip of paper.

"Fine, listen. We have training again tomorrow, if the teleporters are still down give me a call. See ya." He said with a wave and then shot off in a blur of super speed. She walked back into the apartment starring at Wally's terrible scribblings he called hand writing. Her mom wheeled into living room eyeing her young daughter.

"That was awful long for a simple goodbye." She stated drying her hands with a rag from her lap.

"It was nothing mom." Artemis said stuffing the piece of paper in her pocket before taking a seat on the couch and searching for the always missing remote.

Artemis's mother just chuckled and started moving towards her bed room, "Oh to be young and in love again."

"MOM!" Artemis yelled.

**Author's Note:** Hope you liked this one. I figured there's nothing more awkward than having someone you don't want to meet your parents meet them in a way you just can't help. I originally was going to have it be Wally's parents, but I couldn't figure out a sceneario to get Artemis there and plus Wally's parents are way different than how they are in the main DC univerese so I decided to stick with Arty's mom.

Thanks for all your views, favs, and reviews, I never really thought I'd get as many as I have and am always happy to see more. Next chapter either late this weekend or early next week.

See you then.


	8. Dreams

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of the characters from Young Justice or the DC universe, if I did I'd spend my nights digging through trash with The Question lol

**Dreams**

Okay, Artemis wasn't sure how she got in this position. Though in all actuality that wasn't really that big of a concern to her right now. Right now all that was important was she was on the couch with Wally. Okay, maybe that wasn't an accurate depiction of events. More precise was that _she _was on the couch, and Wally was on top of her. Her hands were in his hair, one of his on her hip and the other supporting himself as they kissed. Okay, kiss was way too nice a term for what they were doing, but being otherwise occupied she could not think of a more accurate word. After a long battle to see who could explore the other's mouth first Wally finally pulled back for air, she decided to take this opportunity to turn the tables. She pushed him into a sitting position and moved into his lap, her hands resting on his broad shoulders.

She stared into his deep green eyes and smirked, "Tell me you want it."

"I.." They were interrupted by a loud wailing noise. Before Artemis could react some kind of light began to envelope them, she felt like she was being pulled into it. Artemis opened her eyes only to shut them quickly again as the morning sun shone through her bedroom window blinding her still waking eyes. Soon her sense were about her and she was aware of her blaring alarm clock, her pillow still clutched tightly to her chest, and a small puddle off drool that had formed next to her mouth.

"Oh god no…" Artemis mumbled as the realization hit her.

* * *

Okay, there had to be a rational explanation for this, Artemis thought to herself sitting in study hall ignoring her history report. The more she thought about it the more she remembered the case she and Ollie worked with The Question a few weeks back on League business.

"Dream's are our subconscious's way of telling us what we already know or don't want to admit." Artemis repeated quietly under her breath. She really wanted to believe Ollie was right when he told her The Question was a paranoid whack job who just happened to be a good detective. Unfortunately the more she looked at it, the less crazy The Question looked.

* * *

It was Friday night and they'd all just returned from a particularly long mission and everyone opted to stay at Mount Justice over night rather than go through the hassel of heading home. Kaldur and Superboy had decided to head to bed, while the rest of the team occupied themselves in the common room. Robin was reading some thick bound book on Criminology, Megan was cooking some new confection she'd discovered in one of her hundreds of cookbooks, Artemis was sitting on the couch with Wally trying to work through her history homework while he lazily watched the large tv, occasion just hoping to a new channel. The room was awkwardly silent, and that didn't sit well with Artemis. She managed to not think about the Wally dream issue during the whole mission, gunfire did wonders for her focus, but now just sitting on the couch with him, the same couch from the dream, she couldn't stop thinking about it and him. It didn't hep she could feel him watching her every so often, of course every time she tried to catch him all she saw was him staring at the tv, she couldn't help but curse his super speed.

"Um, guys." Megan piped up at them a little while later.

"Yeah?" They said in unison. Artemis hated when they did that.

"Um...you two are kind of...thinking really loudly." Megan said confusing the two teen heroes.

"...we're what?" Artemis finally piped up.

"Well you guys are kind of on edge right now and your thoughts are broadcasting a little too loud for me not to read." Megan said with misplaced guilt.

"Are you telling me those two found a way to bicker without even talking now?" Robin chuckled looking up from his book.

"Dude!" Wally blurts at Robin only making the boy wonder laugh more.

"You both seem to be worrying about a dream, maybe you can talk to each other about it." Megan offers sliding her creation into the oven before floating over to Robin, "Robin, would you like to join me in a game of chess while this bakes?"

"Sure MM." He said hoping off the counter stool and following Megan out of the room.

Artemis and Wally sat in relative silence, the sound of the Spanish soap opera Wally had been watching providing white noise in the background. It was Wally who finally broke the silence, "So...have any good dreams lately?" he said jokingly. Artemis was glad she hadn't yet bothered to take off her mission gear, her mask hid her blush.

"In your dreams Wallman." She said swiftly picking up her books and papers and exiting the room leaving a confused speedster.

* * *

As they made their way to Mountain's library Megan finally spoke up, "Are you sure what we did was such a good idea Robin?"

"Sure, all you did was give there brain a little nudge."

"Are sure, I'm not sure telling their brains to dream about each other is something my uncle J'onn would approve of." Megan said nervously.

"Don't worry MM, this will be good for them." Robin said with a chuckle stepping into the library, "Now where did Kaldur hide that chess set."

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the wait, between classes, work, and the natrual dwindling of ideas. I had this idea way back when I was marathoning JLU episodes. I really like a line of dialouge I paraphased from The Question about dreams.

Please keep the reviews coming, the sheer over flow of reviews for the last chapter spoiled me lol.

toodles.


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